To prevent Shawshank-style jailbreak, Gujarat prisons to go hi-tech

Several sensors will be installed about three meters under the ground at regular intervals inside the jail.

The prison authorities in Gujarat has planned to instal high quality sensors in two central jails to alert officials about any underground movement and thwart bids by prisoners to escape by digging tunnels. The move comes five years after some prisoners dug up a tunnel in the British-era Sabarmati Central Prison here.

“To foil attempts by inmates to escape by digging a tunnel, we have decided to install a ‘tunnel detection system’ in the Sabarmati central jail and the Lajpore central jail in Surat district,” Additional Director General of Police, Prisons, T S Bisht told PTI.

“Gujarat is probably the first state in the country which is planning to implement such a system injails,” he claimed, adding that only the Border SecurityForce (BSF) uses it as of now to detect tunnels near border areas.

The state government has allocated a budget of Rs 2.8 crore for the implementation of the project in these two jails, the official said. As a part of the system, several sensors will be installed about three meters under the ground at regular intervals inside the jail, Bisht said.